Chicago Botanic Garden
Chicago, Illinois

The Chicago Botanic Garden, with its world-renowned plant collections and displays, is one of the country’s most visited public gardens, and a preeminent center for learning and scientific research.

Located in Glencoe, Ill., just 25 miles north of Chicago, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s 385 acres are uniquely situated on nine islands surrounded by 81 acres of lakes. The Garden features 23 spectacular display gardens including the Gardens of the Great Basin, as well as the Bruce Krasberg Rose, Regenstein Fruit & Vegetable, English Walled and Japanese Gardens. Three native habitat areas featured on grounds include the Mary Mix McDonald Woods, the Suzanne S. Dixon Prairie and the Skokie River. The state-of-the art Buehler Enabling Garden features tools and techniques to help people of any age or ability garden for a lifetime.

Each year, the Chicago Botanic Garden attracts more than 750,000 visitors, making it the second most visited garden in the United States. The Garden boasts a membership of 45,500, the largest of any U.S. public garden. More than 900 volunteers assist with all aspects of the Garden’s mission, from planting and propagating natural areas, to teaching educational programs and staffing public events and festivals.

In addition to being a top visitor attraction, the Chicago Botanic Garden is a world-renowned leader in horticultural research, conservation and education. Research programs focus on the collection, evaluation, introduction and preservation of plants native to, and particularly well suited to, the Midwest climate.

The Chicago Botanic Garden is committed to conserving rare Midwest plant species, and is working with regional, national and international organizations on behalf of plant conservation. The Garden is a member of Chicago Wilderness, a consortium of 131 local institutions dedicated to preserving and restoring Chicago’s natural areas, as well as the Center for Plant Conservation, a group of 30 other botanic gardens and arboreta committed to conserving rare plants from their region. Additionally, the Garden and The Morton Arboretum have established the Chicago Center for Endangered Plants.

Each year, the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Center for Teaching and Learning serves more than 200,000 students, including 25,000 school children, 1,350 teachers, and 9,000 children and teens through camps and scout programs. The School of the Chicago Botanic Garden offers adult learners more than 430 classes, ranging from botanical arts to advanced horticultural courses, for backyard gardeners to experienced botanists. Students enrolled at the Glencoe location have access to the Garden’s superb "living classroom," which features more than 8,704 taxa and 2 million specimens from around the world. The School’s highly regarded professional team also teaches courses in Lincoln Park and Gurnee.

In neighborhoods throughout Cook County, the Chicago Botanic Garden has established and assisted in a variety of programs, including 250 community gardens, 56 school gardens and programming in 80 Chicago public libraries. An internationally recognized horticultural therapy program offers training and services to people with physical and mental disabilities, both on-site in the Buehler Enabling Garden, as well as at schools, hospitals and mental health facilities throughout the region.

Other educational resources include the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Plant Information Services and the June Price Reedy Horticultural Library, which are open to members and nonmembers alike. Plant Information Services offer answers to any and all gardening questions, by phone or in person, at the Gateway Visitor Center. The Library, located in the Education Center, holds more than 18,000 books on gardening, horticulture and botany, more than 4,200 rare books, 2500 periodicals, 200 videos and thousands of nursery and seed catalogs. The addition of 2,219 rare books and 2,000 journal titles from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in fall 2002 elevates the Chicago Botanic Garden’s stature as a premiere national and international scientific and educational institution.

More information: www.chicagobotanic.org

Photos on this page & Illinois State page:
by Bill Biderbost
Used with permission.

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